Did I say the gardens were giving it shot?

The fruit producing plants, in particular, are currently firing all on all cylinders!

It’s getting hard to keep up with it all. We had a late cool spell but no damaging frost. The fruit harvest has been impressive so far, with more to follow. The first to ripen in our Western PA garden were the black raspberries. There are four rather hearty locations of them. There would have been five but an overzealous Bobcat operator mowed a few down before finding out that he was on our property, not the property of the person intending to build a house below us. Ah well, they’ll come back or I’ll add to them for next season.

Next are the blueberries. The picture above doesn’t do justice to the bush we inherited with the purchase of our house and land. I’ve picked 5+ pints already and it’s still loaded. I’ll soon be up to 2 full pints ripe each day until the bush is empty. I’m guessing I’ll get about 16-20 pints this year from the one bush. I’ve added 5 more but they are all babies compared to the original one in that location.

I’ve had a few red and yellow raspberries but nothing worth noting. Those are all still sitting in their pots until I get the right spot ready for them. Next to ripen will be the blackberries. And wow, there are at least as many of those as the black raspberries, if not more. We’ve already gotten 24 pints of raspberries. The pantry is going to be wonderful this Fall and Winter.

I have a sour cherry tree in a pot — mine is a dwarf Montmorency. It did produce a few cherries this year. I still have to decide where it’s getting put in the gardens. However, my folks have a very decidedly full-size sour cherry tree right next to their house. My father and I picked a few ripe cherries over the 4th of July. Then he just decided to keep picking to take advantage of the abundance of fruit on that tree this year. I’ve done 12 small jars of cherry preserves so far and I’m told that there are 5 half gallon ice cream containers full of cherries waiting to be pitted for preserves, pies, tarts... not sure what all I’ll manage to do with the abundance.

After that I’m going to have to keep an eye on the ancient pear tree that’s weighted down with an amazing amount of fruit. Then there are the two apple trees along the open part of our acre. I still have access to the quince at our old house that we’ve not managed to sell yet. It too is loaded with amazingly good looking fruit despite lack of attention. It’s going to be a banner year for fresh fruit on the table, preserves in the pantry and possibly some tasty tarts and syrups t’boot.